2010’s Academy-Award winning documentary Inside Job presents a compelling, bold, and fiercely reasoned argument: the globalized finance industry, particularly through its cozy, long-term relationship with the U.S. government and academic elite, is criminally responsible for the ongoing economic crisis that began in 2008.The documentary’s director, MIT political science academic Charles H. Ferguson, has described the film as being about “the systemic corruption of the United States by the financial services industry and the consequences of that systemic corruption”. Be warned; there are no sacred cows (or cowboys…) in this one.

Though some might (mistakenly in my opinion) see the film as a liberal critique of capitalism, Inside Job includes the pointing of a righteously angry finger at the complicit President Obama and his advisory team of fat cat financial industry insiders. Interestingly, the film is narrated by actor Matt Damon, who, readers might recall, was front and center at Hollywood’s 2008 Obama cheerleading extravaganza. As far as I’m concerned, his work here – and in 2010’s True Grit – is that of a man on the path to redemption.

The Bourne Redemption

The film follows the political movement towards de-regulation of the finance industry that began in the 1980’s. A useful analogy is used that compares the finance industry to an oil tanker, a huge ship that carries millions of gallons of oil in its hull. Prior to the de-regulation of the industry in the 1980’s, it was like an oil tanker that is divided into separate compartments in order to prevent the oil from sloshing to one end and capsizing the ship. De-regulation policy in effect created one giant tank; the failure of which would prove to be catastrophic.

Even though the story is told in a highly objective and well-documented style, it features no shortage of jaw-dropping revelations that keep it interesting. As they say, you can’t make this, umm, “stuff” up.

A profile of Iceland’s dismal economic situation, for example, reveals how this once stable, functioning democracy was reduced to its current chaotic state by banking industry privatization. In the 2000’s, Iceland’s leaders sold the country out to the globalist cabal by allowing its banks to invest and do business overseas – that is, by privatizing them. The banks immediately wrote loans totaling over 120 billion dollars, or ten times Iceland’s GDP. The bubble burst in a spectacular fashion, of course, but only after the bankers enjoyed a hedonistic free-for-all of yacht buying and Manhattan real estate investment.

He specializes in student loans.

Even more interesting, from where I stand, were the supposed reasons behind the globalization and de-regulation movement in Iceland and throughout the West. In the early 80’s, much of the deregulation hid behind a mask of reactionary conservatism; cultural backlash against the lefty lunacy of the previous decades, along with a sluggish economy, had created the perfect environment for crony capitalism to reach new heights. This kicked off a long-running period of smashing good times for the finance industry. Behemoth Morgan Stanley, for instance, had a staff of 110 and working capital of 12 million dollars in 1972; by 2008 it had 50,000 workers and capital of several billion dollars.

The more current justifications used for financial de-regulation, however, have moved far away from anything that could masquerade as conservatism. Iceland’s de-regulation was carried out in large part on the basis of pro-globalist economic reports, written by professional academics, that claimed the policy would be a great boon to the country’s economy.

Just when you think the rabbit hole couldn’t get any deeper, this part of the film exposes a sickening and deeply corrupt relationship between the academic establishment and the elite finance industry. Tenured professors of Economics and Business throughout top universities were and are paid outrageous sums – hundreds of thousands of dollars – to write and lecture on finance industry propaganda. Papers by academic economists were cited that explicitly cheer lead the convoluted risk-evasion and “heads I win, tails you lose” schemes of the infamous “derivatives” and sub-prime lending markets.

Perhaps even more disturbing, in light of the fact that these free-for-all looting policies are often (unwittingly, I hope) supported by “family values” Republicans, was a segment that highlighted the sordid degeneracy of Wall Street culture. There is a candid look at the mountains of cocaine that move through those shiny towers, and a revealing interview with the queen bee of a high-dollar Wall Street brothel (hers is the ultimate gravy train).

I strongly recommend this film to anyone interested in understanding the current state of affairs in the world. The system it exposes works because many people, like me, find the convoluted schemes of international finance utterly boring and even repulsive as a concept, and therefore just keep their heads down and hope they aren’t being conned. Parasites and criminals can only leach off the virtue and hard work of honest people by lying to them.

Education and critical thinking are the only answers; magical thinking has failed us, as will the ongoing desperate effort to paper over the mess. Inside Job doesn’t just offer a good starting point for that education; it lights a fire of righteous anger.

It’s the kind of anger that’s been known to get things done.